


The Struggles of Being Single Dads

by Myllah



Category: Green Lantern - All Media Types
Genre: Adopted Children, I saw one fanart and became obsessed with this, Jessica and Simon are the kids, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Single Dads AU, They had a rough start, but it'll get better i promise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:53:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27106033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myllah/pseuds/Myllah
Summary: It was supposed to be a nice, calm day at the park. Just a nice, average, take your adopted kid to have fun with other kids and bond over shiny rocks or something.Of course nothing ever quite goes as planned for Kyle
Relationships: Guy Gardner/Kyle Rayner
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	1. A Nice Day at the Park

It was supposed to be a nice, calm day at the park. Just a nice, average, take your adopted kid to have fun with other kids and bond over shiny rocks or something.

Kyle didn’t even bring his sketch pad, that’s how committed he is to this nice day.  
Simon was excited about it when they left the house. He’s a real jitter-bug so obviously he would jump at the chance to run around without risking knocking over any expensive art supplies that Kyle has no idea how to organize. 

So they arrive and Kyle sits on a bench lets the six-year-old run over to the slide, smiling a little as he sees those little legs do their best to climb up the wrong way round. Soon enough Simon seems to be playing with a little girl that seems to be about his age and Kyle relaxes a little. 

Simon is a good kid but sometimes he might seem a little hard to approach. God knows they didn’t get along when he first adopted him. It felt like a whim to do so. Another huge disaster that the Justice League had to deal with that left a lot of people dead, Kyle happened to be in the area, when something went through the building, wrecking it. 

As soon as he got his bearings, Kyle was going to run but a child crying made him go into the building, finding a kid crying under a table… Simon was the sole survivor and Kyle just couldn’t allow for the boy to go into the system. So, with no previous kid experience and barely out of his teens himself, Kyle ended up adopting Simon. It was a learning curve. It’s almost been a year since then and Simon has softened up to him, will draw in crayon next to him while Kyle is working and watch cartoons. He’s no longer always quiet, he will speak when he feels something is important and will ramble on when he enjoys doing something as well. They have grown closer and Kyle feels he’s doing okay at being a dad. All he knows is that Simon is the most important thing for him and that he would never let Simon get hurt that way ever again. 

Which is why when he hears a man screaming, looking up and noticing that he’s yelling at his son, he jumps to action, putting himself between Simon and the angry red-head. “What the hell do you think you’re doing??” He asks, narrowing his eyes at the man.

The man seems stunned for all of two seconds before he near growls when he points at Simon. “That your kid?? That little shit was pulling my daughter’s hair!” He moves aside to show the little girl that was playing with Simon in tears and Kyle looks back at Simon, he is also crying, his lip quivering but trying to be strong. 

“I’m sure he must have had a reason! Simon isn’t a violent kid!” But that only served to make the man angrier, his face starting to go red.

“Are you accusing my daughter when she’s the one that got hurt??” The man sounds incredulously angry, narrowing his eyes further at him and Kyle would normally have just walked away but this guy is blaming Simon for something he never would have done!

“Clearly I have to because my son isn’t the kind to pull a girls hair. He’s a really good kid! So clearly your daughter is the problem! Did you even see it??” Kyle is beyond furious now, how dare this guy!!

“Well, maybe you don’t know your son as well as you think you do!” That has Kyle glaring at the man.

“Or maybe you don’t know your daughter!” He rages back, both of them fuming at each other. 

The guy is about to open his mouth to reply when a woman comes up to them and scolds them for shouting in a children’s park and asks them to leave. Both parents grab their children and leave, glaring at each other until they reach their cars.

As soon as Kyle shuts the door to their apartment, he follows Simon to his room and leans against the doorway. “We need to talk about what happened.” He tells him, watching the way Simon isn’t looking him in the eyes, finding it suspicious. So he sighs and heads to him, kneeling by his bed and taking hold of his hands. “I know you, Simon, you wouldn’t hurt that little girl out of nowhere, no matter what you say here I’m not going to think you’re bad okay? Whatever that man said to you was wrong.”

Simon starts tearing up again and does what he usually does, quickly rubs his hands in his eyes to try to hide the fact he’s crying and looks away from him until Kyle cups full cheeks and has him look at him, gently cleaning his tears with his thumb. “Talk to me, I promise you won’t get punished.”

The boy nods and mumbles out his confession. “I only pulled her hair because she hit me.”

Widening his eyes, Kyle is quick to frown afterwards, a shout of ‘I knew it!!’ ringing in his head. “I sense there’s more to this story.”

After a soft sob, Simon nods again. “We were playing superheroes, Jessica said she wanted to be Green Lantern… I told her that Green Lanterns are lame and she got mad and pushed me.” 

“That’s really mean to do. She should not have pushed you. Is that why you pulled her hair?”

“No… I pushed her back and she fell down… I didn’t mean to push her that hard! But I was angry and told her again that Green Lanterns were lame and she got up and hit me! Then we started to fight.” Now that Kyle is looking at him he can see bruises in his arms and a rather ugly one on his cheek.

A sinking feeling comes to him. So it was a kid fight and Simon does share half the blame. After all that spectacle about Simon never being able to do such a thing. It’s normal for a dad to defend their kid. “So her dad came after?”

A small nod from the boy. “She tripped and I had my hand on her hair from our fight, that’s when that mister saw us.” Well… Seeing some kid pulling at Simon’s hair would have likely made him angry too, especially without seeing the fight, Kyle is starting to feel a bit like an ass for this. But right now he has a crying child to deal with.

“Do you realise what you did wrong?” There’s a nod and Kyle hums. “Tell me.”

“I shouldn’t have hit her.” He replies, his eyes wet but no longer tearing up.

“No, you shouldn’t have. But she should not have pushed you either. It’s okay to defend yourself but it’s not okay to be mean to other people. You knew she liked Green Lanterns and you still said they were lame. What if someone said Superman was lame?”

Simon got really defensive and frowns. “Superman is not lame!” And Kyle smiles.

“Exactly, she thought the same of Green Lanterns and you still said it again. That was mean.”

The boy looks down, looking very guilty now. “That was mean...” Then he looks back up at Kyle, grabbing one of his hands. “So… I say I’m sorry?”

There’s a warm feeling in Kyle’s heart as soon as he hears that. “Do you want to say I’m sorry?”

Simon thinks for a bit before nodding his head. “Yes… I do. I was mean.” And that just feels Kyle with so much pride for his son. He ends up smiling.

“Well, then let’s go back tomorrow and try to find them and apologize, how does that sound?” The boy seems very happy with this prospect but Kyle is aware that the chance they’ll be back is very small. And that the little girl is not devoided of blame. But teaching Simon to be the bigger man is a good lesson nonetheless. He just hopes they find the duo tomorrow.

For now, he’s getting some ice for the boy’s cheek and ordering pizza for dinner, the little guy’s definitely earned it.


	2. We Meet Again

Despite how much Kyle has been dreading having to face that guy again. He did promise to go with Simon.

They went to the park a few times after the incident and stayed for a couple of hours but never ended up meeting them. Simon seemed to not be bothered too much about it, playing around for the times they went. Only when they'd get home, would he mention that he didn't see Jessica. It's sweet that he still has it on his mind and that he is so intent on that apology. 

Either way, there have been no incidents and they were getting on better. The bruise in his cheek was getting smaller. Good thing too because people have been eyeing him weirdly when he goes out with Simon, making Kyle do a make-shift bandage on his cheek every time they leave just so he doesn't get the dirty looks. 

There is, however, a new problem that is currently driving Kyle mad. 

For a while now the apartment next door had been empty. Which was great news for him, he got to work with no noise and didn't have to bother with neighbourly things. Namely, he could be as loud as he liked with Simon usually, they got pretty heated with video games and shows they watched together. 

But now that perfect peace is gone and there's been banging and dragging and laughing from the other side of the wall and Kyle hasn't been able to work properly. It stops at a respectful hour and it's not like they're throwing things so he can't complain, especially because he's sure he's heard a child laughing the other day. He doesn't want to be an asshole if there's a chance for Simon to make a friend. Besides Kyle was already making plans on getting to know the neighbours when they finished moving in, not wanting to be roped into helping when he had work to do.

That kind of became impossible when he heard a knock at the door. After looking at the piece he had hardly started due to being unable to focus, he sighs and heads to the door, opening it up to a surprise. 

On the other side of the door was that rude guy from the park, along with his little girl. Both men are now staring at each other, the Red-head growing pale as he looks between Kyle and the hall, almost like he's thinking about just leaving. "I... Uh... Should probably say that I did not know you lived here." He starts, awkwardly and Kyle nods, feeling stiff.

"Er, yeah, no, that didn't really come to mind."

"Good! Good thing that..." 

At this point, Simon comes at the door and gasps loudly. "Jessica!" The little girl hides behind her father's leg and Kyle stands in front of Simon should the guy start shouting again. 

"Right, we should probably start there..." The guy clears his throat and looks down. "I should uh... Apologise for the whole... Shouting thing... Jessica told me what happened afterwards and I was really too quick to judge your son. I just saw him pull Jessica's hair and freaked out."

Now that's surprising, Kyle didn't think this man would be so quick to admit he was wrong. "It's okay... I'm not really sure what I would do if I found a kid pulling at Simon's hair either." But he still looks at Simon, who had left and then returned with a paper in his hands. "Is there something you want to say, Simon?" He asks, patting his son's shoulder.

Simon takes a step forward towards Jessica, who only hides herself further, and hands her the paper he was holding. "Sorry... Green Lantern isn't that lame after all." The paper had a drawing of Green Lantern, the very own Hal Jordan flying through the sky. Kyle thought Simon really outdid himself with this one.

While taking it, Jessica giggles at it while the man huffs a little. But she still says. "Sorry I punched you..." And Simon rubs at his injured cheek.

"This is nothing, superheroes don't feel pain!" He says while wincing.

With a snort, the guy smiles at him. "That's not true, superheroes get hurt all the time and it does hurt. That's why they're cool! Because even though they're hurt, they don't give up, right?" He says, leaning down to be at a better level with Simon.

Simon widens his eyes, looking at the man like he just told him a big secret and nods. "Yeah! Superheroes are awesome! But Kyle is my hero!" He says, pointing at his father, who flushes a little. 

"My daddy is a hero too!" Jessica says and the guy seems to puff his chest a little before he places his hand on her head.

"Now, enough of that." He then looks at Kyle, offering him a hand to shake. "With the awkward part out of the way, hi, I'm Guy Gardner. Jessica and I are your new neighbours."

Kyle kind of expected this but is still somehow taken aback by the sheer coincidence. "Oh, wow, small world, huh?" Still... The name sounds somewhat familiar...

The guy... Or just Guy it seems, laughs at that. "Even the universe, it sounds big but you keep running into familiar faces all the time." Odd... This guy didn't seem like the kind to think about the Universe... Maybe Kyle should really not judge people by what they seem. 

"Seems that way. I'm Kyle Rayner and this is Simon." The boy ends up waving. 

"Pleasure, now I did come here with the intention of inviting you guys for dinner, on account of the noise we've been making and are probably going to make for a little while longer." Guy seems a little awkward about it and Kyle can't help but think that this man really cannot be that bad.

"Considering I have no urge to cook, I'll say yes. What do you think buddy? Wanna have dinner with Jessica and her dad?" He ends up asking Simon, his input is always valuable after all. 

The boy is obviously into it with how fast he agrees and the two dads look at each other a little lost. "Are you going to cook, because even if I said I don't feel like, I will help!" Kyle says, feeling a little awkward by what he had said earlier.

"Since this is a dinner to fall into your good graces I'm not going to let you help. So don't worry about it too much. Let's say eight o'clock?" Guy smiles at him and Kyle nods cheerfully.

"Eight sounds fine, want me to bring anything?" 

"Just your appetite! I got the rest handled. See you then." With a wink, he walks off to the apartment next door, with Jessica in tow. 

"Well, I guess we have dinner to look forward to, huh buddy?" Kyle says, petting Simon's head, he closes the door and sighs, trying to process what just happened. Then he goes to put on his shoes and try to wrestle Simon into his. If there's going to be a dinner, there is no way he's showing up without at least dessert.

**Author's Note:**

> I got bitten by the writing bug and I promised a while back that I would write this for a friend  
> I hope it's not too OOC because I'm not completely involved in their comics, please take it easy on little poor me.  
> Dedicated to @cursed_blob on insta, the sole reason I even know these characters exist and why I fell in love with them <3


End file.
